Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I accept that progress was slow in the early stages but it is accelerating. As he accepted, that is largely due to a couple of factors on which we have been working hard. The Minister, Deputy Hogan, and I met with the National Asset Management Agency, NAMA, on a number of occasions last year.

The special purpose vehicle is important because it involves gathering units into it which then can be passed on through the voluntary housing sector or the local authority sector. There was a problem with leasing, namely, some difficulties on agreeing leases with voluntary housing bodies. They have now reached an agreement with NAMA on an appropriate lease that appears to satisfy everybody. That will speed up matters as well.

We got a specific allocation in the budget, to which the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Deputy Howlin, referred, to ensure that we would have funding this year. To give some indication of figures, while we have more than 200 over the line, between 600 and 700 are being processed. I hope we will have the majority of those through this year.

I was in Scotch Hall in Drogheda last Thursday and met with residents who had moved into some of the units. The experience has been positive. When the various bodies involved with NAMA – owners and receivers – realise that this can be a positive development, and where we have local authorities and voluntary housing bodies working with us, I am confident that we will see an acceleration. I am driving the process. I wish to ensure that we get those units because as the Deputy said, many people are waiting for social housing.

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